Mystic Massacre
The Mystic Massacre was a key battle during the Pequot War of 1637 between the Pequot indians, were eventually exterminated, and English Colonists at Connecticut. Just earlier the indians had raided colonial settlements at Wethersfield CT and Fort Saybrook. The Mystic massacre took place on May 26, 1637 during the Pequot War, when English settlers under Captain John Mason and Narragansett and Mohegan allies set fire to a fortified Pequot village near the Mystic River. They shot any people who tried to escape the wooden palisade fortress and killed the entire village in retaliation for previous Pequot attacks. The only Pequot survivors were warriors who had been with their sachem Sassacus in a raiding party outside the village. Overview * See also Wikipedia:Mystic massacre In May, leaders of Connecticut river towns met in Hartfort CT, raised a militia, and placed Captain John Mason in command. Mason set out with ninety militia and seventy Mohegan warriors under Uncas; their orders were to directly attack the Pequot at their fort. At Fort Saybrook, Captain Mason was joined by John Underhill with another twenty men and they altered their plans with divine approval. Underhill and Mason then sailed from Fort Saybrook to Narragansett Bay, a tactic intended to mislead Pequot spies along the shoreline into thinking that the English were not intending an attack. After gaining the reluctant support of 200 Narragansetts, Mason and Underhill with Uncas and Wequash Cooke, marched their forces approximately twenty miles towards Mistick Fort (present-day Mystic). They briefly camped at Porter's Rocks near the head of the Mystic River before mounting a surprise attack just before dawn. The Mystic Massacre started in the predawn hours of May 26, 1637 when English forces led by Captain's John Mason and John Underhill, along with their Native allies from the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes, surrounded one of two main fortified Pequot villages at Mistick. Only 20 soldiers breached the palisade's gate and were quickly overwhelmed to the point that they utilized fire to create chaos and facilitate their escape from within. The ensuing conflagration trapped the majority of the natives and caused their death, those who managed to exit were slain by the sword or musket from the others who surrounded the fort. Only a handful of approximately 500 men, women and children would survive what became known as the Battle of Mistick Fort. As the soldiers made the exhausted withdrawal march to their boats, they faced several attacks by frantic warriors from the other village of Weinshauks, but again the Pequot's suffered very heavy losses versus relatively few by the Colonists Justifying his conduct later, Mason declared that the attack against the Pequot was the act of a God who "laughed his Enemies and the Enemies of his People to scorn making Pequot as a fiery Oven... Thus did the Lord judge among the Heathen, filling Mystic with dead Bodies."John Mason's justification for burning Mystic in A Brief History of the Pequot War: Especially of the Memorable taking of their Fort at Mistick in Connecticut in 1637 (Boston: S. Kneeland & T. Green, 1736), p. 30. Of the estimated 500 Pequot present at Mystic that day, only seven survived to be taken prisoner, while another seven escaped to the woods.[http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/42/ Mason, John. A Brief History of the Pequot War: Especially of the Memorable taking of their Fort at Mistick in Connecticut in 1637 (Boston: S. Kneeland & T. Green, 1736), p. 10.] The Narragansett and Mohegan with Mason and Underhill's colonial militia were horrified by the actions and "manner of the Englishmen's fight... because it is too furious, and slays too many men."William Bradford, Of Plimoth Plantation, 1620–1647, ed. Samuel Eliot Morison (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), p. 29.John Underhill, Nevves from America; or, A New and Experimentall Discoverie of New England: Containing, a True Relation of their War-like Proceedings these two yeares last past, with a figure of the Indian fort, or Palizado (London: I. Dawson for Peter Cole, 1638), p. 84. The Narragansett attempted to leave and returned home but were cut off by the by the Pequots from the other village of Weinshauks and had to be rescued by Underhill's men. After which they reluctantly rejoined the colonists for protection and were utilized to carry the wounded thereby freeing up more soldiers to fend off the numerous attacks along the withdrawal route. Participants Connecticut Militia In May 1637, leaders of Connecticut river towns met in Hartford, Connecticut, raised a militia, and placed Captain John Mason in command. Mason set out with ninety militia and seventy Mohegan warriors under Uncas; * Captain John Mason - militia commander * Capt. Robert Seeley (1602-1668) - 2nd in command Saybrook Militia At Fort Saybrook, Captain Mason was joined by John Underhill with another twenty men and they altered their plans with divine approval. * Capt John Underhill (1597-1672) - commander of Saybrook Militia. External Links * Battlefields of the Pequot War References Category: History of Massachusetts Category: Mystic, Connecticut Category: Pequot War Category: massacres